BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
The American Counseling Association Tomorrow’s Counselors essay competition recognizes graduate counseling students with exceptional insight and understanding about the counseling profession and the work of professional counselors in mental health, private practice, community agency, agency, organization or related counseling settings.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
Friday, November 20, 2026 - 11:59pm ET
AWARD NOTIFICATION
Week of January 25, 2027
JUDGES
ACA Awards Committee
PRIZE
First Prize Award
- $1,000 honorarium
- Complimentary registration for the 2027 ACA Conference and Expo (March 11-13, 2027, Portland, Oregon) and recognition during the event. Winners will receive further information at the time of award notification.
- Essay published on Counseling Today Online.
Second Prize Award
- Complimentary registration for the 2027 ACA Conference and Expo (March 11-13, 2027, Portland, Oregon) and recognition during the event. Winners will receive further information at the time of award notification.
Third Prize Award
- Complimentary registration for the 2027 ACA Conference and Expo (March 11-13, 2027, Portland, Oregon) and recognition during the event. Winners will receive further information at the time of award notification.
Honorable Mention Awards (2 awards):
- Complimentary registration for the 2027 ACA Conference and Expo (March 11-13, 2027, Portland, Oregon) and recognition during the event. Winners will receive further information at the time of award notification.
Sponsor: American Counseling Association Foundation
Other Awards
ELIGIBILITY, RULES AND CRITERIA
The American Counseling Association Tomorrow’s Counselors essay competition is open to any counseling student in a master’s or doctoral degree program taking one or more graduate courses at an accredited college or university.
- Essayists must be enrolled in counseling-related graduate studies in the spring and summer of 2025..
- Essayists must be American Counseling Association student members. Join ACA or renew your membership.
- Essayists may enter only one of the following two awards tracks: the 2025 American Counseling Association Tomorrow’s Counselors essay competition or the 2025 American Counseling Association Future School Counselors essay competition.
- Previous American Counseling Association Tomorrow’s Counselors essay competition awardees are not eligible to apply for the 2025 competition.
- Only one essay can be submitted by each American Counseling Association student member.
All entries will be read by a team of experienced professional counselors and evaluated in terms of how effectively each essay addresses the subject and offers provocative insights into the profession of counseling and its future.
Judges will want to see ideas well explained and supported. They will be evaluating how effectively the essayist presents his/her view and how interesting that position will be to the counseling community at large.
The decisions of the judges are final. There can be no substitution of prizes.
HOW TO APPLY
- Submit an essay of 500 words or less. See topic below.
- It is recommended that awards program entrants write their essay in a software program of their choice, save it and then copy and paste the essay into the online submission form. Keep a copy of the essay in case there is a problem in the electronic transmission of the awards entry.
- Neither the American Counseling Association nor the American Counseling Association Foundation is responsible if an entry does not reach the Awards program submission queue.
- All entrants, by the act of entering, grant the American Counseling Association and the American Counseling Association Foundation the right to publish their name and their essay as part of the post-competition publicity on CT Online.
- Confirm your ACA membership status.
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